Tiger Woods headed to the practice range after his opening round of the Open Championship, as much a positive sign as his 3-under-par 69 at Royal Liverpool.
Woods hit his first shots in a major championship in 2014 and saw his name inch onto the leaderboard with a six-birdie, three-bogey effort to trail early leader Rory McIlroy by three strokes.
“I knew I could do it,” Woods said. “That’s why I was telling you guys it was so important for me to play at Congressional. The fact that I was able to recover every day, and the fact that I was stronger, more explosive the more days I played.
“I’m only going to get better from that point. And I’m getting stronger, I’m getting faster, I’m getting more explosive. The ball is starting to travel again. And those are all positive things.”
Woods’ two rounds of 74 and 75 at the Quicken Loans National last month showed plenty of rust, but playing in that tournament undoubtedly helped him shake some of the first-tee jitters on Thursday.
